Criteria Administrators Considered When Hiring First Year Agricultural Education Teachers

1. Criteria Administrators Considered When Hiring First Year Agricultural Education Teachers Jeremy Cantrell Union City High SchoolUnion City Oklahoma

2. Literature • The quality of teachers has a direct impact on students’ achievements (Holmes, 2001) • By better understanding hiring practices and alternative certification, this should allow finding the best route to teacher certification.

3. Literature • Boulton (1979) found selected interviewees for teaching positions were chosen by: • Cooperating teacher recommendations • College supervisor recommendations • Subject area expertise • Seiferth (1979) found the personal impression job candidates leave on potential employers seemed to be the most influential.

4. Literature • Mortaloni (1984) found that administrators liked letters of recommendation from: • Cooperating teacher • College supervisor • Building principal at cooperating center and • Candidate’s grade in student teaching

5. Literature • Vornberg & Liles (1983) • often the administrator hires the applicant who seems to reflect his or her own attitudes

6. Literature • Coady (1990) • the problem is not the candidate’s value system, but the value system of the interviewer • we infer the characteristics of a candidate on the basis of incomplete information based on similar candidates from previous situations

7. Literature • Braun (1990) found that teacher candidates were often selected based upon: • Inexperienced & unskilled interviewers • The basis of one interview • Interviewers with administrators who may not be familiar with classroom realities • Personal judgment rather than objective criteria

8. Literature • Stronge (2002) • alternative certification will attract talented individuals with subject matter competency that can improve quality of education because of their knowledge and the depth of the material being taught.

9. Literature • . . . to improve quality of education, (we must) ensure that professional knowledge and subject matter competency are grounded in solid pedagogy. Darling-Hammond (1990)

10. Purpose of the Study • Describe factors that public school administrators in Oklahoma consider when hiring first year Agricultural Education Teachers.

11. Objectives • Describe the importance administrators place on the teaching candidate’s: • Academic Achievement • Agricultural Experience • Teaching Practice • Interview Skill • References • Certification

12. Procedures • Population – All Oklahoma school administrators who hired a first-year agricultural education instructors for the 2002-03 academic year • Of the 24 ag ed teachers, five were alternatively certified • Ag Ed regional program specialist was contacted to identify the school administrator responsible for hiring

13. Research Design • Data was collected by telephone interviews to increase response rate • Descriptive statistics were used for the Likert-type questions (mean, STD) • Open-ended questions were coded and frequencies were analyzed • Questionnaire was pilot tested and was reviewed by a panel of experts

14. Scale

15. Academic Achievement

16. Experience In Agriculture • Most importance on: • Well-rounded in agriculture content • Supervision of student projects • FFA activities and programs • Less importance on: • Experience in production agriculture

17. Ag Ed Areas

18. General Teaching Practice

19. Interviews

20. Ranked References

21. Alternatively Certified Teachers • 20 said they would not hire alternatively certified teachers • 4 said they would, and did • Secondary responses • 15 wanted teachers who have been trained to teach • 13 wanted candidates with classroom experience

22. Alternatively Certified Teachers • 14 believe it may be ok in academic areas such as math or science • 4 were completely opposed • 14 believed it was not for first-yearAgricultural Education Teachers • 3 believed it was acceptable

23. Conclusions • Administrators were most interested in the candidates’: • Knowledge of agriculture • Ability to run a well-rounded program in terms of agricultural content • Ability to manage the classroom, and develop rapport with community and other teachers.

24. Conclusions Cont.. • Administrators sought candidate’s: • Who can present their knowledge of agriculture in an enthusiastic manner. • Who were highly recommended by his or her cooperating teacher. • Who were fully certified, having previous classroom instruction and classes in pedagogy.

25. The End • Go Pokes! Jim Leising watching the game